Operation Yellow Ribbon was commenced by Canada to handle the diversion of civilian airline flights in response to the September 11 attacks in 2001 in the United States. Canada's goal was to ensure that potentially destructive air traffic be removed from United States airspace as quickly as possible, and away from potential U.S. targets, and to instead place these aircraft on the ground in Canada, at military and civilian airports primarily in the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and British Columbia.